"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
An in-depth study of Gal 2:20 brings to fore one little-noticed, if not altogether missed, critical aspect of Salvation, and that is: DEATH and BIRTH.
The Apostle Paul, in as few words as he could state it, drove home the point of the need to DIE first, followed by BIRTH to a new life, as requisite to Salvation.
It's all in the figurative sense but essentially, it has the effects of the real thing, when the implications are considered, applied and accepted as the new reality of life for the person who takes seriously his calling and desires to meet Jesus Christ when He returns and follow Him wherever He goes. (Rev 14:4).
There are no gray areas here. Either you are dead and born into the new life that will guarantee your place in the Kingdom this stage of your life or continue living, business as usual, and wait for Judgement Day -- a slippery slope and a very risky business.
Listen to Paul speak about "death" and being "alive" in no uncertain terms:
"Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Rom 6:11)
What was he saying here?
Simple. When one is dead, he's dead. He is not reformed, transformed or reborn. He may be alive in the body but his old sinful self, along with its worldly interests and desires, habits, attitudes, propensities, inclinations, etc., is factually and effectively dead -- discarded for good.
But he will be BORN into a new life. No longer his old self rising like the mythical Phoenix but he is granted the great honor and privilege to be born into a new, totally different life -- the very precious life of Jesus Christ, just a very tiny part of His life that will grow with the passing of time, but remember: that microcosm of Christ's life that you will be born into is way BIGGER than the sum total of your old self now dead. How so? Because the sum total of Jesus Christ's life surpasses in size the sum total of that of the entire human race.
Now for the question: Will the "newborn" person no longer have free will or the capacity to think, decide, act and do things independent of GOD? Will he be like the robot doing only what it has been orogrammed to do.
Definitely, the "newborn" man retains that capacity to think and act freely as he wants to (like Paul and his fellow apostles and yes, the angels) but being conscious of his new state of being -- that the life he lives is not his to do with it as he pleases -- he is no longer inclined to exercise it outside of what the Holy Spirit prompts, inspires, motivates and directs him to do. The very attributes of Jesus Christ are progressively etched in his consciousness until these become his nature as he grows into maturity.
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There is much more yet to know and understand but let this be sufficient for now.
Caveat:
THIS IS NOT AN ATTEMPT to form a "tithe-collecting" worldly religious organization. Nor are we recruiting you to form one. We are simply seeking out our fellow "other sheep" of Jesus Christ.
